KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday opened on positive note as the benchmark 100-index gained 82 points to reach 41471.52 points level.
On Wednesday, bearish sentiments dominated at the PSX due to concerns over record fiscal deficit as the benchmark KSE 100-index closed at 41,390 points after losing 389 points.
HBL (down 5.0%), EFERT (1.4%), DGKC (4.6%), and LUCK (1.8%) were the major losers, dragging down the market by 194 points cumulatively, brokers said.
The market could not sustain positivity that was witnessed in the initial hours and reversed on the back of prevailing investor concerns. The impact of CPI inflation numbers remained neutral as inflation for Aug-2017 clocked in at 3.4% YoY, in line with street expectations of 3.3% YoY. HBL (down 5.0%), after witnessing lower circuit for 5 consecutive sessions, managed to trade 6 million shares, and closed at its lower lock once again. Cement sector witnessed selling pressure over concerns of negative price adjustments on additional capacities. DGKC (down 4.6%), POWER (3.8%) and MLCF (2.3%) were the major losers of the aforementioned sector. Commercial banks also remained in the red zone except for MCB (up 1.7%), which gained to close in the green, said analyst at JS Global.
Volumes improved in yesterday’s trading session as 148 million shares were traded compared to 108 million shares in the previous trading session, depicting a DoD increase of 37%. While traded value increased to Rs8.6b.
